Update: Thousands sign petition to save Silsbee theater

Updated 11:05 am, Thursday, October 5, 2017

Photo: Jennifer Reynolds, Staff Photographer

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W.S. Rosser, longtime manager of the Pines Theater, poses for a photo in the theater in 2001. Rosser was known to generations of Silsbee residents while running the theater for more than 65 years. Enterprise file photo less

W.S. Rosser, longtime manager of the Pines Theater, poses for a photo in the theater in 2001. Rosser was known to generations of Silsbee residents while running the theater for more than 65 years. Enterprise ... more

Photo: Jennifer Reynolds, Staff Photographer

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The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

Photo: Ryan Pelham

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The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

Photo: Ryan Pelham

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The retro neon sign on the Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

The retro neon sign on the Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

Photo: Ryan Pelham

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The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

Photo: Ryan Pelham

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The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

Photo: Ryan Pelham

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The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

Photo: Ryan Pelham

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The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

The Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise

Photo: Ryan Pelham

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W.S. Rosser, longtime manager of the Pines Theater, in the theater's projection room in this file photo from 2001. Enterprise file photo

W.S. Rosser, longtime manager of the Pines Theater, in the theater's projection room in this file photo from 2001. Enterprise file photo

Photo: Jennifer Reynolds, Staff Photographer

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W.S. Rosser, longtime manager of the Pines Theater, in the theater's projection room in this file photo from 2001. Enterprise file photo

W.S. Rosser, longtime manager of the Pines Theater, in the theater's projection room in this file photo from 2001. Enterprise file photo

Photo: Jennifer Reynolds, Staff Photographer

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James Whitmire, owner of the Bank Barber Shop in downtown Silsbee, talks about the nearby Pines Theater. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise less

James Whitmire, owner of the Bank Barber Shop in downtown Silsbee, talks about the nearby Pines Theater. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan ... more

Photo: Ryan Pelham

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Juanita Stover laughs while sharing memories of the Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise less

Juanita Stover laughs while sharing memories of the Pines Theater in downtown Silsbee. The theater has been closed since Harvey with no date to reopen set. Photo taken Tuesday 10/3/17 Ryan Pelham/The ... more

Photo: Ryan Pelham

Update: Thousands sign petition to save Silsbee theater

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Update: Almost 4,000 people have signed a Change.org petition to save Silsbee's Pines Theater.

"First dates, childhood memories, and summertime entertainment in the small town of Silsbee, Texas. Those are just a few of the things our community knows and remembers about the Pines Theater," petition creator Keely Gore wrote.

The future of the 1948 theater, now operated by AMC, is unknown after it sustained damage during Harvey. Employees were told recently that they wouldn't reopen after the storm, and the Silsbee Economic Development Corporation said in a Facebook post Monday that the company has not made a decision about the one-screen theater.

AMC did not respond to requests for comment on the theater, known throughout the community as a local institution and landmark.

"They can't close it," said Juanita Stover. She remembers taking her infant son to the theater, when her family moved to Silsbee 65 years ago, to watch a movie about "swamp people." Her son later took his own children there, she said.

The last movie she saw there was in 2011, when she went to see "War Horse," but she's still adamant that its closure would hurt the community.

"I don't want it to close, it's just too nice of a place."

"It's been a family tradition," said Sneed Elmer, who works across the street from the theater and said she saw carpet removed from the building after the storm. "Kids, grandkids, great-grandkids all went there. At night, that's where our little town went."

It closed for repairs after Rita and Ike, she said, but always reopened, Elmer said, and neighbors thought the same would happen after Harvey, but a month after the storm, it's still shuttered.

The theater has seen the passing of generations and been home to plenty of personal milestones.

"It was a hot spot for a lot of first dates," said Nikki Freeman Park, who grew up in Buna, while Heather Williams recalled that "going your first time alone was like a coming of age."

"I went with a small group of friends, my mom knew every one of the kids, I can't even remember what we saw because we were so keyed up and hyped up" about going without their parents for the first time, Williams said. "We were just in heaven, because we got to go by ourselves, we could go and get popcorn any time we wanted," she said.

"You felt safe there," she said, and kids knew that if they misbehaved, their parents would find out.

"Even though the theater had only one screen, it was still the place for us to go to just get away for a few short hours," said Daniel Smith, who grew up in Buna and said he and his mother went almost weekly to the theater.

He recalled watching one of his favorite movies there, "Back to the Future Part II," along with "A River Runs Through It" and "Driving Miss Daisy"

"And of course, I remember the old man who worked there," Smith said. "He always had on a neatly pressed white buttoned up shirt, dark dress slacks, and his white hair was always combed perfectly, as if he was a star in one of his movies he would show."

He was W.S. "Unkie" Rosser - a lifelong employee of the theater, known for walking to and from work each day and running a tight ship inside.

"He raised generations of kids there," his niece Keely Gore said, calling them by name and making sure they behaved. "He was the whole town's babysitter."

Rosser started working there at 14 or 15, Gore said, and was the manager until he retired at 83, five years before his death in 2013.

"He was our uncle, but he was everybody's Unkie," said Page Sheffield. She recalled watching movies from the balcony, in the few seats that remained in the second floor, where Rosser would let his family sit.

The balcony, no longer used for seating, hearkens back to when the theater was segregated: African Americans were required to sit in the second floor.

The building had been renovated over the years, though it was still in need of more repairs before the storm, Gore said. Some of the modifications, like the self-serve Coca-Cola machines, would have horrified Rosser, she said.

It's kept its neon sign out front throughout the changes, the blue, yellow and orange sign rising up above the cracked tan facade above the marquee.

If the theater does shut down, "I'm fighting somebody for that," Gore said.

"They just don't build them like that anymore," said Williams, recalling the heavy curtains inside and the recessed lighting in the ceiling. "At times it's needed a little pick-me-up, but it's always been there and didn't change. No matter how much changed (in Silsbee), it's just stayed the same."